Ideological Reorientation

Abstract

China is still a country with an ‘ideological’ political system, in which all policies require an ideological justification. The Chinese traditional political culture is strongly in favour of being able to claim moral superiority. The legitimacy of the regime never solely depends on practical achievements, but also on ethical and moral power. Chinese reformers openly declare their normative goals in the process of reform. Indeed, China’s process of economic reform has been accompanied by an outpouring of competing ideologies aimed at inducing, justifying or resisting economic and social changes. Competing ideologies generally operate either as a stimulus to reforms or as a constraint on them and have thus affected the pace, scope, content and nature of China’s economic reform. The doctrinal failure of Maoism at the end of the Cultural Revolution compelled China’s reformers to seek new justifications for their market-oriented reforms. Partly due to their expressed commitment to socialism, Chinese reformers have to constantly modify orthodox socialism so as to initiate and implement pro-business policies. These efforts have shaped a process of ideological reorientation from what were previously anti-market norms to a pro-market doctrine.⁹⁷